UFC 169 Contingency Plan Revealed

With a forecast predicting snow and an outdoor stadium that could quickly turn into a winter nightmare, there is a very real chance that next Sunday’s Super Bowl in East Rutherford, N.J. could be moved to Saturday, February 1 – which would be the worst case scenario for the UFC, as their UFC 169 event is also scheduled for Saturday night. Does the UFC have a contingency plan if that happens?

It turns out that they do.

According to Dave Sholler, the UFC’s PR head and the man who did all the talking at UFC on FOX 10’s postfight presser, if the weather forces the NFL to change the Broncos/Seahawks game to Saturday, UFC 169 will be moved to Sunday night.

Logistically, rescheduling a UFC pay-per-view to even just one day later involves a lot of moving parts – fighters will have to weigh in on Saturday, the venue has to be staffed and ready for Sunday, and all the broadcasting people have to adjust to the change. It would definitely be a pain in the butt, but not an impossible task. And it would likely be better than the alternative, which is a UFC on Saturday night going head to head with the Super Bowl, which, given the demographics that the two sports share, would result in a Affliction-level pay-per-view buys.

Depending on Mother Nature, this coming week could be very interesting.